Rich McCue

Hobbiton to Mount Doom – Hiking The Tongariro Alpine Crossing – NZ

We started our Adventure in the Shire at Frodo’s hobbit hole.

Hobbit on was just beautiful! Hard to believe it’s been 25 years since the first Lord of the Rings movie was in theatres.

Then travelled to the edge of Mordor to start our hike.

Clumps of lava a long ways from the mountain.
A look back at the desolate terrain from eruptions over the years.
A photo of “Mt. Doom” at the top of hike.

We walked through the desolate landscape and eventually found the entrance to Sauron’s forge…

The entrance to Sauron’s Forge… or possibly a lava vent.
Something interesting looking coloured fluid coming out of a sulphur smelling steam vent that emptied into the aqua marine blue lake near by.

But having the appetites of Hobbits we couldn’t spare the time to explore inside…

One of the “blue” lakes near the top of our hike. Unlike the freezing cold glacier fed blue lakes in Canada, these ones are probably warm. We did not dip our hands in to see how warm they are as the blue lakes on the mountain are sacred to the Maori peoples.
Kind of fun to find a little bit of snow on our way down the mountain.
A glimpse of the huge lakes at the base of the mountain.

Or we’d miss our reservation back at the Green Dragon in Hobbiton 😉

Enjoying our well earned ciders back at the Green Dragon in Hobbiton 😉
The lake in front of the Green Dragon, looking across at the mill and some of the 32 hobbit holes on the preserved movie set.

Seriously though it was a challenging 6-hour hike, but with some amazing other worldly views to experience!

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, NZ

Leave a Reply